This lament, with its improvisations and its heart-rending reminiscences, is the typical Irish Caoine. But the sweep of personal feeling in it puts it apart from all the others. Art OLeary, like many of the Irish gentry of the time, had been abroad; he was an officer in the Hungarian service. He married Eileen of the Raven Hair, the daughter of OConnell of Derrynane, whose grandson was to be Daniel OConnell the Liberator. Her parents were against the marriage. The immediate cause of the tragedy was the winning by OLearys mare of a race. At the time Irish Catholics were not permitted to own a horse that was worth more than five pounds. The English planter whose horse had been beaten offered OLeary five pounds for is. He refused the offer. Thereupon he was declared an outlaw and was afterwards shot through the heart. This was in 1773. The first intimation that his wife received of the tragedy was the arrival of the mare without her rider.